"Everybody liked him," Aparicio said. "He never did anything wrong. You never heard anything bad about him. He was just a nice person."

The shock of Ayala’s death still resonates with neighbors around the intersection of South Post Oak Road and West Orem, where his taco stand is still located.

He was killed around midnight. Police said he was murdered for money as he came out of a convenience store about a block from his taco stand.

The store owner, his friend, had warned him about carrying cash.

"He always goes around with $700 to $800 in his pocket and I told him, 'Dude, you can’t carry that much money in your pocket,'" Ryhat Syed Ali said.

Thanks to security cameras at the store, police identified Conway as a suspect in the case.

According to police, Ayala had just walked out to his truck when Conway and three others pulled up in a white Hyundai. Conway walked up to Ayala’s truck with a long gun, and shot him, police said. One of the others rifled through Ayala’s pockets as he was dying, police said.

Conway is charged with capital murder.

Aparicio thinks he knows what should happen to Conway.

"I think he should be in jail for a long time. I don’t think people like Mr. Ayala should be killed. Not for no reason,” he said.